Statement by the Haitian Platform For Development Alternatives PAPDA
Port-au-Prince, June 22, 2009
For several weeks, the question of raising Haiti’s minimum wage has been at the center of political discourse and is the basis of a new round of mobilization and repression. Since May 1, the national police (PNH) and UN (MINUSTAH) have unleashed a wave of repression against the population, particularly those supporting the law passed in the Senate on May 5th to fix the new minimum wage at 200 gourdes ($5) per day.
Several times, PAPDA has already publicly pronounced its support for the new law. But here are a few reasons worth repeating:
1. The lack of augmentation of the minimum wage between April 17, 2003 and June 2009 is a violation of the Haitian labor code (article 137) and a violence that the state and the dominant classes committed against Haiti’s workers and against the nation.
2. Workers’ purchasing power continues to diminish. The minimum wage in the 1970s (5 gourdes in 1971, 6.5 gourdes in 1974) is less than the 1950s. The situation continues to diminish in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. All calculations, taking account of inflation in the past 6 years, would arrive at a reasonable minimum wage between 500 and 600 gourdes per day.
3. During the period between 2003-2009, Haitian dominant classes’ profits have exploded because of several factors, including the tax holiday the Boniface/ Latortue government gave the private sector. Available statistics show that more than 61% of the wealth in Haiti is absorbed by profits - only a small portion goes to workers’ wages.
4. The behavior of the State is shocking, presenting an image of politicians totally in the service of a blind oligarchy, completely foreign to national realities. Contrary to the DSNCRP (Haiti’s strategic plan to the World Bank and IMF), neoliberalism has not contributed to growth in the country, only more misery.
5. PAPDA is scandalized by the fallacious arguments the business owners (ADIH) have used to scare the government and population against raising the minimum wage. Every time the minimum wage has been discussed, ADIH has cried wolf to scare the government against its passage: that raising minimum wage would mean the certain and immediate closure of industry in Haiti and the cause of a sudden loss of jobs. In every case, it was a lie.
6. The question of minimum wage is far from being a simple question-of-the-day. It needs to be posed in relation with the vision and the model of development imposed on the country. Washington and the U.N. want to turn the country into a workshop of the U.S., building more free trade zones, recently brought about by the HOPE II act and repeated by Paul Collier in his report to the U.N. This sub-contracting model does not add to the wealth of the country, but only facilitates it being drained more quickly. To truly develop our country’s wealth we need to do away with this development model in favor of national production.
7. It’s clear that ADIH’s arguments haven’t born fruit. With a daily salary of 70 gourdes for 6 long years under the HOPE law, we still haven’t seen the sudden boom of foreign direct investment (FDI) promised. Haiti has an enormous structural deficit (routes, ports, airports, communication, electricity, etc.) The U.N. and U.S. and foreign press continue to talk about Haiti as a “failed state” which justifies foreign occupation. What investor would be rushing to invest in this country often stigmatized in the foreign press?
8. 70 gourdes per day are largely already passed in CODEVI (Haiti-DR free trade zone) and in certain factories in SONAPI (Port-au-Prince industrial park), so it’s possible to raise the wage. According to ADIH, HOPE II represents a savings of $1.50 per pair of pants, but the cost of all Haitian labor is 12 and a half cents.1 Double this and it’s another 12 and a half cents, a small fraction of the gains already made by HOPE II.
9. The camp of those struggling for the passage of the law for the 200 gourdes minimum wage needs to grow. PAPDA salutes the big mobilization by the Collective for another May 1 who has mobilized numerous demonstrations. We also salute Parliament, particularly the author of the law Steven Benoit. For the past several weeks, State University (UEH) students have been carrying the banner.
In accounting for these elements, PAPDA
1. Exhorts the 2 chambers of Parliament to maintain the 200 gourde minimum wage.
2. Asks the executive to respect the constitution and quickly publish the 200 gourdes minimum wage.
3. Asks the Minister of Social Affairs to honor its mission to reinforce its supervisory capacity to ensure that this increase in minimum wage would trigger a rapid increase in workers’ quotas.
4. Demands the Haitian government to renounce the neoliberal macro-economic framework.
5. Firmly condemns the hateful repression arrived since May 1, 2009
6. Asks that all organizations who truly believe in a better future for Haiti to join in the mobilization for the 200 gourdes and contribute to build a single platform of demands to reinforce the popular movement and its place in the process of decision-making.
Signed,
Camille Chalmers Fruck Dorsainvil Marc-Arthur Fils-Aimé Chenet Jean Baptiste
Bureau Exécutif ANDAH ICKL ITECA
William Thélusmond Lise-Marie Déjean Cilencieux Benoit
CRAD SOFA MITPA
